Two days later, this blogger noticed not one, but two booths in the offices of Wal-Mart Labs in nearby San Bruno.

And this past week, on a visit to Target Plaza Commons on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, the blogger found….you guessed it….another red telephone box.

Point of Sale is not sure why tech companies have adopted the booth as its standard bearer. According to website the-telephone-box.co.uk, the General Post Office rolled out the first booth in 1921 while Sir Giles Gilbert Scott unveiled the booth’s most recognized design three years later.

It might seem odd that tech startups and retailers, who are trying to develop unique mobile technologies and smartphone apps, would gravitate to something as quaint as the telephone booth.

But as the website noted: "The telephone was a marvelous technical innovation, but for that reason was very expensive, so their use in the closing decades of the nineteenth century was limited to wealthy homeowners and businesses."

Ah. So a symbol of both innovation and exclusivity. That makes some sense.

But of course, nobody really gave that explanation.

Fiona Kirkpatrick, office manager for Luvocracy, said she found the booth on Craig’s List. Since the phone booth is obsolete, there are quite a few of them up for sale on the Internet, she said.

Since Luvocracy boasts an open office design, Kirkpatrick said she envisions employees using the booth to make real phone calls and to enjoy some privacy.

“Plus the booth looks very cool,” she said.

That’s probably as good of an answer as any. Like any fad, people like to copy what’s cool but never admit they are copying something to be cool.

How else can we explain why exposed brick, open worktables, bean bag chairs, foosball tables, pop culture quotes, whiteboards and markers have become mandatory for any startup office?

Ironic that in the quest to appear innovative, these offices all look the same.